UG Choosing your Courses
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Course choice forms for the 2025/26 academic session will open on the 25th of April. The deadline to submit your course choices via our form will be the 13th of June. Students will receive full guidance. Please note that the information below is being updated ahead of course sign-up and is subject to change.
As part of your degree at Edinburgh, you have the opportunity to select optional courses to take alongside those that are compulsory for your degree programme.
Depending on your area of study, there is a large range of different courses from all over the University available to choose from.
The process of choosing your optional courses and having them added to your student record is known as pre-selection. The process of collecting course choices from students differs from school to school across the University of Edinburgh.
On this page you will be able to find information on how to choose and submit your course choices, please ensure you take the time to read this carefully. Use the quick links on the right hand side to guide you through this page.
Before you submit your course choices, please take some time to watch our short video as well as read the guidance below.
A guide to choosing your course options
- How to choose your courses (including DRPS guidance)
A normal year load is 120 credits (most commonly six 20 credit courses). For most degrees, your courses should be distributed evenly between Semester 1 and Semester 2.
Once you establish what your compulsory core courses are, you will be able to make your optional course selections.
When selecting your courses, always check the following:
- you meet all prerequisites of the course
- the year and level of the course are appropriate
Which compulsory and optional courses are open to you is dependent on your degree programme and your year of study.
You can view this information using the University’s Degree Regulations and Programmes of Study (DRPS) pages.
This is the method recommended by the school.- School of Social and Political Science (SPS) draft course listings
In SPS, teaching activities will be campus based and in-person. Any exceptions to this will be detailed on the course listings page.
These course listings will show you the draft timetabling details for courses within SPS.
These documents will not show the full details of all the courses available to you, so please ensure you review DRPS to see all of your options.
Submit your course choices
Students on programmes run by the School of Social and Political Sciences (SPS) should submit their choices via the forms below.
Students on programmes run by other schools: please follow the instructions provided by your own school for pre-selection. SPS does not need to pre-approve your courses.
- Guidance on completing the Pre-Selection form
We strongly recommend completing your form via a desktop browser (Google Chrome works best), instead of a mobile device. If you have any technical difficulties, please clear your browsing history and cache first.
When completing the online pre-selection form, you will need to list ALL your compulsory and optional courses for each semester, including those from other schools.
Please indicate your options in order of preference, and list more than the required 120 credits, in case your first choices for optional courses are over-subscribed.
Due to the volume of forms being processed by the Undergraduate Teaching Office (UTO), no confirmation emails are issued when you have been signed up for your selected courses.
If there are problems with your selections, we will contact you via your student email address.
Please regularly check your University email account. Please also check your junk and clutter folders in case any of our communications end up there.
Year 1 Students starting September 2025
Guidance for Students entering Year 1 in September 2025
New students entering Year 1 will be able to submit their course choices from the 18th of August 2025.
Watch the guidance video at: choosing your course video.
Use DRPS to view your degree programme and what optional courses you can take. You can also view our guide for using DRPS to view your course choices at Using DRPS to choose your optional courses
Note which optional courses you want to take. Consider your first choices as well as backup options. Please provide us with four different optional course choices to ensure you have enough backup options.
Ensure there are no clashes in your timetable. Check the timetabling information for each optional course choice using the timetabling system, Timetabler, which can be accessed through MyEd (in the 'Studies’ tab, under ‘My Course’ column). You can also check the timetabling information for each optional course choice on DRPS. If you're unsure how to do this, see page 7 of the Using DRPS to choose your optional courses document.
Submit your course choices using the online form by the 1st of September (see link to the form in the section below).
Guidance notes and Frequently Asked Questions
Word format: Frequently Asked Questions Document
Submit your course choices via our online form
Deadline: 1st of September 2025 (TBC: estimated to open 18th of Aug 2025)
Year 2 Students starting September 2025
Submit your course choices via our online form
Deadline: 13th of June 2025 (due to open 25th of April 2025)
Years 3 and 4 Students (excluding PPE students) starting September 2025
Submit your course choices via our online form
Year 3 and 4 Students - Form C
Deadline: 13th of June 2025 (due to open 25th of April 2025)
Years 3 and 4 PPE Students starting September 2025
Submit your course choices via our online form
Year 3 and 4 PPE Students - Form D
Deadline: 13th of June 2025 (due to open 25th of April 2025)
- Politics and International Relations (including PPE) - additional information
Information for Politics and International Relations Students entering honours years
- Please see the additional information for PIR honours students at Course Sign Up PIR Honours
- PPE, BMedSci Anthropology and Sociology of Medicine, BMedSci Global Health Policy Honours students - additional information
Students on PPE, BMedSci Anthropology and Sociology of Medicine, MA Global Health Policy degree programmes will need to complete a degree-specific course pre-selection form. The link to the appropriate form will be sent out via email by SPS Pre-Selection or relevant Student Adviser. Please be aware that BMedSci Anthropology and Sociology of Medicine and BMedSCi Global Health Policy pre-selection forms will not be available on this website.
- MA Sociology and Psychology Honours - additional information
Students on MA Sociology and Psychology programme need to complete both SPS pre-selection form as well as Psychology form. Psychology form can be accessed here.
FAQ
Questions about submitting your course choices? Download our Frequently Asked Questions.
Students entering Years 2, 3 and 4 - Frequently Asked Questions (SPS Continuing Students)
Guidance for students entering Year 1 will be available in August 2025
Course change options
Students can request a change to their optional courses. The course change form is estimated to open Monday, 8 September, 2025.
If you have a question not listed here, please speak to your Student Adviser or email us at sps.pre-selection@ed.ac.uk.